San Diego religious leader among those charged with aiding Somali terrorists

San Diego  The arrest of the leader of a City Heights mosque, a man described as a revered figure who was known for advocating nonviolence and tolerance, has stunned the close-knit Somali community in City Heights, where many refugees of the war-torn country live, work and pray.

Mohamed Mohamed Mohamud, 38, appeared in federal court Wednesday to answer to charges that he was involved in a conspiracy to provide money and other aid to al-Shabaab in Somalia, which U.S. authorities have designated a foreign terrorist organization.

Mohamud and co-defendant Issa Doreh, 54, pleaded not guilty. A third defendant, Basaaly Saeed Moalin, 33, pleaded not guilty to similar charges Tuesday.

Mohamud has been the imam — the religious leader — of Masjid Al-Ansar on Winona Avenue for 10 years, said Bashir Hassan, secretary of the small mosque that primarily serves Somali refugees. Doreh and Moalin both attended the mosque, Hassan said.

Mohamud is married and has several children, Hassan said Wednesday.

“He is the center of the community here,” Hassan said. “Everyone likes him. When anyone needs help, he is the first person to help. His arrest was very shocking. He is a godfather person to the community.”

The reaction was similar throughout the community, where thousands of Somalis live in sprawling apartment complexes and work in local stores and restaurants. Most did not want to give their names, but they expressed a similar theme: They want to refrain from judgment about guilt or innocence until the case is decided in the court system.

“This is very, very sensitive,” said one longtime area resident. “We come from a place where the government is always fabricating the truth.” But he said he has faith in the U.S. justice system, adding that “no one is above the law.”

Abdi Mohamoud, executive director of Horn of Africa, a nonprofit organization that provides assistance to local refugees, said the majority of Somalis here reject al-Shabaab.

“Most everybody can point to someone in their family who has been killed or affected by al-Shabaab,” Mohamoud said. “The families all have scars of what this group has done to their families. To talk about such a group in good terms would get people upset.”

San Diego’s Somali community, estimated at more than 10,000 people, is the second largest in the United States, behind Minnesota’s Twin Cities.

A federal indictment filed Oct. 22 accuses Moalin, Mohamud and Doreh of collecting and sending nearly $9,000 to al-Shabaab in 2008 to fund the group, known for using violence in its war against Somalia’s weak transitional government. Moalin is also accused of providing a house in Somalia that was intended to be used in a conspiracy to kill people.

Doreh, a longtime San Diego resident, was at one time president of the now defunct Somali Community of San Diego, one of many nonprofit organizations that were launched in the early 1990s when many Somali refugees came to the area.

Hassan said Doreh is a graduate of San Diego State University and has children who have attended the school. He did not know his current profession. He said he did not know much about Moalin, other than seeing him at the mosque.

According to the indictment, Moalin in April 2008 asked Mohamud to “hold back 20 or 30 trusted people at the mosque to tell them to contribute money” for al-Shabaab.

Hassan, who said he believes Mohamud is “100 percent innocent,” said no one at the mosque was ever asked for money, and that Mohamud did not have access to money at the mosque, which is governed by a board.

All three men, who are being held without bail, are expected to appear at a hearing scheduled for Friday.

Prosecutors contended Wednesday that the three men should be denied bail because they represent flight risks. U.S. Magistrate Judge William Gallo said they also may pose a danger to the public, based on the allegations contained in an indictment.

More than two dozen of the defendants’ relatives and other supporters attended Wednesday’s arraignment and several more waited outside the courtroom, unable to find seats. They declined to speak to reporters after the hearing. Defense lawyers also declined to comment.